Trudy , a therapy dog owned by Jeff McDonald, of Tewksbury, Mass., was making friends Sunday afternoon at the memorial on the corner of Boylston and Berkeley streets

BOSTON -- Over the weekend, after an exhausting and dramatic week, police officers around the city were treated as minor celebrities.

People sought to thank and shake hands with first responders, and maybe get a quick photo. On Boston Common, they saluted the city's police officers, who passed in groups wearing khaki pants and bright vests over blue shirts. They clapped at the police motorcycle motorcades that occasionally passed.

"It's good to see the city getting back to normal," said a state police bomb squad member near Copley Square on a chilly Saturday, one day after the capture of a Boston Marathon bombing suspect.

The statement was true in terms of street traffic. Thousands walked Newbury and Boylston streets and Boston Common, and thousands more attended Red Sox and Bruins games.

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But along with signs of normal activity, there were reminders of the Monday bombings, which left four dead and more than 170 injured. The police were lauded for their work all week, including the capture of the second suspect after the first was killed in a gunfight with officers.

"People just started putting flowers down and throwing in their Bruins or Red Sox hats," one officer said of the impromptu memorials at either end of the cordoned-off area of Boylston Street, from Copley Square to Berkeley Street. Like all officers interviewed for this story, he asked that his name not be used.

The bomb squad member was demonstrating a remote controlled-bomb sweeper, or "$150,000 toy," as he called it, for people walking by Saturday.

Throughout the cordoned-off zone, pockets of military police were found in groups talking among themselves, and at other hotspots, notably Boston Common and the Park Street T stop, where they were joined by a group of citizens protesting drone violence in the Middle East.

"I've never been so glad to see people organizing for one of these," a military policeman said of the gathering.

In Boston Common, hundreds used a SWAT truck as a photo opportunity, and were encouraged by the Boston team member who held the keys. The truck featured a Boston Bruins' sticker.

"You should have saw the crowd of Bruins' fans climbing all over this thing and to take pictures earlier [before 12:30 p.m. game began Saturday]," the SWAT team member said.

The atmosphere around Lansdowne Street and Yawkey Way during and after Saturday's Red Sox-Royals game could be described as super-charged.

A capacity stadium could be heard thunderously singing along with Neil Diamond to "Sweet Caroline," and sporadically bursting into "U-S-A" chants.

Surrounding bars were packed after the game, a 4-3 Red Sox victory.

Following a tense week that featured bombings, a manhunt and a dramatic conclusion, area residents were working through the next step.

"I don't really get all this 'U.S.A.' stuff," said resident Garrett Miller. "But it'll die down and hopefully return to thinking about the people whose lives were impacted by the bombing."